The dead made their way back to the Octagon House to see three simple black vehicles in the drive. Gregory headed to the vehicles to assess them, he knew more than the two beside him, he died when the Packard was a hit. These certainly where not Packards!
Emmeline tried to focus on the voices and where they were coming from.
"He came in here" Said one man
"Yeah down the drive, but where did he go, the house is closed." replied another
"Yeah and looks scary AF!" Said a third.
Emmeline assessed that the three unknown male voices were looking for a fourth male. She walked around the yard and noticed a disturbance (a few drops of blood) by the cellar entrance, the men's voices where coming from the opposite side of the house. Without opening the door she entered the cellar. She noticed a crumpled body at the bottom of the stairs. It wasn't a young man, this was a child! She went near the boy and noticed the blood. There was so much blood. The boy's eyes where closed and his breathing was shallow.
Emmeline bit her lip.
"What is it?" Ania called from the top of the stairs.
"A boy child." Emmeline called back. She thought for a moment and called back to Ania, "Get Gregory, and tell him to get rid of the men, by any means necessary."
"Really? Any?" Ania came down and stood by Emmeline, she bent and looked at the boy, "He's my age?"
"Yes he appears to be around your age, and yes and you too, feel free, to use the best of your haunting abilities" but Emmeline moved her eyes back on the boy, "Actually, after you tell Gregory to scare the men away, come back here, I will have some tasks for you, now that you are able to interact with the world. Understand?" Emmeline asked.
Ania nodded vigorously and headed up the stairs in search of Gregory. She found him by the Packards (she didn't know any better all vehicles were packards, right? That was her assumption at least), "Emmeline has asked you to haunt them, scare them away." A wicked smile crossed her face, "And she gave you any means necessary." Ania waited for Gregory to reply before she would head back to Emmeline and assist.
Gregory looked at Ania, and he noted to himself Emmeline was generally not fond of Haunting people, "Why?" he asked Ania without realizing he even said anything.
Ania looked over towards the cellar, "There's a boy and he is hurt. Really badly. I think those men are bad men and they are trying to attempt to hurt the boy."
Gregory nodded in understanding, but he was confused as to why Emmeline was okay with haunting the men, when normally it wasn't her thing and she preferred the others in the household refrain from doing so. They normally didn't bother with humans, because most humans didn't bother with their home. He shrugged his shoulders. It had been a while since he had some fun. He turned away from the already departing Ania and headed towards the men. This most certainly was going to be fun, definitely a highlight of the decade!
Before he went to the men he noticed they looked odd. They were dressed in all black, wearing eyewear that made it difficult to see their eyes. One had small pistols, and the other two carried rifles. Gregory called out in a shrill voice, the three men snapped their heads toward Gregory, but they didn't see anything. The man with the two pistols stepped forward. Gregory identified him as the leader.
Gregory was told any means necessary and and was more than pleased to oblige his lady. He distorted his face, it had the appearance of a decaying body and blood dried on his skin. He created a leg wound, with his femur clearly visible. His eyes became blood shot and discolored. He thought about it and he definitely pulled out all the stops. He let his wicked smile stay on his face. When he was satisfied with his appearance, he made himself appear to the first man. The man jumped and in one swift movement pulled his gun and fired several shots, his companions ran to where he was just around the corner, they searched for what he was shooting at and came up empty. Their leader was emptying his rounds into thin air.
Gregory disappeared and then reappeared behind the two men with rifles. The leader held up his gun to shoot, the men turned around quickly. But there was nothing there, what was up with their leader?
***
While Gregory was tormenting the men. Ania ran (floated) down the steps to Emmeline and to the small boy whom they weren't even sure would make it through the night, let along the next hour.
"Ania go to the well and get water and bring it here immediately. Understand?"
Ania nodded and disappeared as quickly as she appeared.
Emmeline looked at the boy, wanting to bring him upstairs, so she could find someplace comfortable for the boy, but unfortunately, she still heard gunshots and the men. Instead she stood up looking first in the cellar for cloth, to clean and bind the wounds. Unfortunately, she was not lucky enough. She headed upstairs and searched the kitchen. She found several dish clothes. She grabbed a sheet covering the furniture from the last owners of the house and as she made her way down the cellar steps, she grabbed a knife for good measure. She would probably have to rip the cloth in strips to bandage the boy correctly. She made quick work of the cloth to make bandages and as she was working quickly, Ania came back with a bucket of water, it was about half full.
Emmeline looked up at the girl and raised her brows. Ania raised her hands and shrugged her shoulders. "I'm still new with this whole thing and interacting with the environment. But I will go get more."
Emmeline nodded. Looked at her small stash of first aid materials. "good, we will need a lot of water. Also, find some matches, we are going to have to sterilize this stuff, otherwise, he will just die of an infection."
Ania nodded and disappeared once again. Emmeline stood up and grabbed a couple bottles of whiskey, this will certainly help with disinfecting the materials she thought to herself. When Ania came back with the materials. Emmeline started to work. She was determined not to add another ghost to the Octagon House. She occasionally asked for Ania's assistance in which the young girl gave readily.
As she worked on the boy, she couldn't help but shake her head, this was definitely a change.